"Mitchell Smith - Daydreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Mitchell)

mouth: here comes a solid cop.

They weren't wrong.

Her first assignment was administrative, Personnel waiting to see if she
had a friend downtowns rabbi. Ellie had no friend, but at the time
still had a husband. Klein spoke to a fellow lawyer-a senior partner in
Temple, Wright, Wright and Sharecroft-and the man, amused by Ellie's
choice of profession, mentioned her career lag to a captain in Tactical
Command-like the attorney, a dedicated bridge player. In this way,
Ellie was relieved of her responsibilities in the Property Clerk's
office, and put on patrol.

She lasted two years with one of the lowest arrest records in her
precinct-an admittedly low-action area in Queens-and then blotted her
sheet badly, within a week or two of summer vacation.

A very large black detective named Bayard Drew had, with his partner,
stopped two handsome long-haired white boys on a corner. -Bayard had
seen an inescapable outline of switchblade in one boy's pocket, and
being out of temper for personal reasons, stood the boy and his friend
up against a wall for a look-see. Broad daylight, with passersby.
Ellie, on her one foot-patrol shift in the week, passed by just in time
to make her mistake.

As Drew patted the boy down, the young man became suddenly and furiously
violent, and got his knife out.

Drew, grappling with him in embarrassed surprise, twice the boy's size,
made a distracted grab for the knife-wrist, missed it-, and received a
serious wound-a cut up along his forearm that sliced veins and arteries
in two.

At that, Drew raised his other fist, hit the boy a collected punch, and
knocked him into the building wall and unconscious. Then he attempted
to stanch the flow of blood. His partner was occupied with the other
boy, who had seen an opportunity in the confusion, and determined to
take advantage of it.

It was up to Officer Klein, and she muffed it.

Given time, just a moment or two to consider, Ellie would certainly have
done what she should-taken out her sap (frowned on, but more effective
in a tussle than the stick), closed with the boy still struggling,
struck him hard on the head several times to assist in subduing him-and
then gone to the aid of the injured officer, applying pressure to the
site of bleeding, using a folded or wadded cloth if necessary, while
summoning aid with her belt radio.

But Ellie wasn't given time to consider. She came to the corner-mildly